6 Reasons to Start this School Year with an Audio System

by Carolyn Hollowell

Like me, I bet you didn’t know that a child’s auditory faculties are not fully developed until around age 15. Or that one-third of students between kindergarten and 3rd grade suffer some form of mild hearing loss. Listening is 75% of a child’s school day and the primary channel for learning. The simple truth, I learned when I joined Lightspeed, is that children who can hear clearly learn more.

Here are six reasons to adopt a classroom audio system to benefit teachers and students.

1. Overcoming High Ambient Noise Levels

Classrooms are noisy, even when students are quiet. It’s not uncommon for a K-3 child seated 12 feet or more from the teacher to have less than 50% word recognition. Classroom audio systems help overcome ambient noise levels and distribute the teacher’s voice at the same amplified level throughout the classroom. Every child hears the teacher at the same level, no matter where he or she is seated.

2. Improving Attention and Time on Task

When a teacher’s voice is amplified five to 15 decibels above ambient noise, articulation and speech intelligibility are enhanced, reducing a child’s sensitivity to distractions. The amplified instruction better captures a child’s attention and tends to suppress their sensitivity to the extraneous sounds and movements within the classroom.

3. Increasing Class Interaction and Participation

Teachers employing classroom audio note an improvement in student motivation and participation because students have a consistent understanding of what is expected of them. In classrooms where students use a microphone to amplify their voices, teachers report increased enthusiasm, as well as greater desire to read out loud and give oral reports.

4. Reducing Behavior Problems

Educational psychologists have known for some time that a teacher raising his or her voice level heightens the tension and anxiety among children in the class. With the use of classroom audio, teachers report a significant reduction in stress within the classroom, fewer behavior problems, better response to verbal correction when necessary, and overall easier management and control of classrooms.

5. Nearly Eliminating Teachers’ Vocal Fatigue and Throat Illness

When a teacher struggles to be heard, it’s not just the students that suffer. Vocal fatigue and throat infections account for 11% to 16% of teacher absenteeism. Schools using classroom audio systems report 8% to 13% lower teacher absenteeism due to voice and throat problems.

6. Improving Academic Test Scores

Soundfield studies show that amplifying a teacher’s voice results in exceptional improvement in reading and language test scores for students at all elementary levels—in some cases reducing special education referral rates by up to 40% over five years. Some studies have a shown a 7% to 10% improvement in academic test scores among children with normal hearing.

I quickly learned once joining Lightspeed, that our mission is to enable every child in a classroom to clearly hear all the speech components of the teacher’s voice no matter where that child is seated relative to the teacher. Lightspeed audio systems provide exceptional voice clarity and even distribution of sound throughout the room—and the wearable microphones are so lightweight that many teachers forget they’re even wearing it.

For more information on benefits of classroom audio systems, check out this whitepaper.

Carolyn has spent the past 6 years understanding how products can fit into existing and emerging international market. With less than 3% of US companies exporting to more than 5 countries her ability to understand relevant use cases in very different cultures is unique.

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